Howdy!

We have completed 555 miles with amazing climbs/decents but it  is really starting to take its toll on everybody as a rampant case of saddle sore rages impacting EVERY single person here–it doesn’t discriminate if you put a very small part of your body on a not so soft seat for days on end well stuff just rubs off.  Everybody is walking on egg shells and there are many tears as we get onto our bikes.  Everybody adjusts like crazy as they get on seat trying to find a spot where we have only lost 8 layers of skin. We settle there until well it just hurts too much! Everybody groans when we hit a red light cause they have to get off and do it all over again–literally like 5000 times a day! The big seller now is desitin. Its like gold people will pay big bucks for a slather of desitin let me tell you.  To my original pt,  all of the type A personalities have worn eachother out.  It’s fantastic. Now group 1/2 are all professional athletes so they are mad about the reduced mileage/elevation so they add a bunch of miles and then do their run etc. But the rest of the crew is starting to just enjoy the ride. In fact today our last stop (we only had 2 sags and NO lunch!) was at the shake shack where everybody got off their bikes and porked out before heading to dana pt. These people havent done anything like that so man its getting fun for me.

The day was Santa Monica to Dana Pt 72 miles 3100 feet.  It was a spectacular ride although Long Beach was a bit knarly for safety. Unfortunately we are down several cyclists due to pace line crashes that caused multiple broken collar bones and a bunch of other unpleasantness. 20 people going 25 mph with 6 inches between wheels goes from euphoric to chaotic before you even know what happens and just lots of things get run over.  I’d say we are probably down 15-20 for a variety of reasons some business etc. and we had a few join the ride today to just enjoy the lovely last 2 days.

Now to the pictures with no big drama to report and none of us have any cramps or pains at all. They were right they melt away by day 5 as you move to the “other issues”. Anybody know how many layers of skin the human body has? Is it over 12?

I wont describe them all as they are fairly self explanatory but I do need to talk about a few–Me and Don in the bar watching the Giants SMOKE the LOSER St. Louis LOSERS! Oh yeah ALWAYS buy the mechanics drinks–so I did I think you will know which one that is. I have the bike staging area in the parking lot of the JW Marriot in SM–In one you can see them all eating. You see we walked from breakfast which is 8 feet away from the garage and people get really hungry in that 8 foot walk so they eat again before we leave.  I did some selfies in my group on various parts of the ride/a few of the view etc.  NOW I am well know for being more of a grinner than a smiler which has really been an issue for my lovely wife as I have ruined my share of pictures. Well honey we are eating at Robertos tomorrow so I put on my biggest YES smile for you in that selfie. Yes a shout out to my incredibly supportive and loving wife who has had to hear THE entire drama of her dopey almost 49 yr old husband riding down the coast! She has given me support via text/email phone and for that I say thanks I absolutely wouldn’t have made it with out all of the help and support not just this week but through the whole process. WELL DONE! I should get an academy award I wont forget my wife! So, Ann, Thanks. Now to the pictures!